What is mail queue and how to resolve that.

[senthil_kumar_1]

Hi All,

There is one hpux server running in hpux 10.20.

In that I am havin mail queue issue. the mail server is sendmail.


# mailq | more
Mail Queue (1630 requests)
--Q-ID-- --Size-- -----Q-Time----- ------------Sender/Recipient------------
CAA00643* 259 Thu May 13 01:31 prodtmp1
prodtmp1
VAA10587* 739 Sun Jun 20 21:30 hzrwh7
hzrwh7
BAA15880* 2438 Sun Dec 13 01:46 visual1
visual1
LAA00136X 192 Wed Jul 21 11:01 senthil.kumar@emdiesels.com
mh.khan@emdiesels.com
senthil.kumar@emdiesels.com
XAA25119X 192 Tue Jul 20 23:01 senthil.kumar@emdiesels.com
mh.khan@emdiesels.com
senthil.kumar@emdiesels.com
LAA05291X 192 Tue Jul 20 11:01 senthil.kumar@emdiesels.com
mh.khan@emdiesels.com
senthil.kumar@emdiesels.com
XAA06929X 192 Mon Jul 19 23:01 senthil.kumar@emdiesels.com
mh.khan@emdiesels.com
senthil.kumar@emdiesels.com
LAA03291X 192 Fri Jul 23 11:01 senthil.kumar@emdiesels.com
mh.khan@emdiesels.com
senthil.kumar@emdiesels.com
XAA05744X 192 Sat Jul 24 23:01 senthil.kumar@emdiesels.com
mh.khan@emdiesels.com
senthil.kumar@emdiesels.com
XAA20282X 192 Fri Jul 23 23:01 senthil.kumar@emdiesels.com
mh.khan@emdiesels.com
senthil.kumar@emdiesels.com
XAA05198X 192 Thu Jul 22 23:01 senthil.kumar@emdiesels.com
mh.khan@emdiesels.com
senthil.kumar@emdiesels.com

My Questions:

1)What is mail queue?

2)Why it is happening?

3)How to send (transfer) all mail queues to repective mail servers?

4)How to resolve the issue?

[Pete Randall · Accepted solution]

I'm not a sendmail expert, but, as usual, a quick visit to the man page tells me:

1) The mail queue is "mail messages queued for future delivery".

2) The second line of the "mailq" output is supposed to show you the cause this message was retained in the queue.

3) Fix the reasons listed in #2

4) See #3


Pete

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

The mail queue is a directory where outbound emails sit (queue) while awaiting delivery.

Generally mail piles up in the queue when they can not be delivered.

sendmail -v -q
# will give you the reason(answer to #3).

4. Determine problem, look at /var/adm/mail.log and take action based on the error.

Most common, the relay server set up in sendmail.cf is not accepting connections because it has not been configured for relay.

SEP

[Suraj K Sankari]

Hi Senthil,
>>1)What is mail queue?
>>2)Why it is happening?
>>3)How to send (transfer) all mail queues to repective mail servers?
>>4)How to resolve the issue?

see the below link for all qustions.

[Broken link removed on <4/18/2017> by Mod]

Suraj

[Dennis Handly]

>3) How to send (transfer) all mail queues to respective mail servers?

As mentioned by Pete, the reason the mail isn't being delivered, is your server is too busy, "X".
That doesn't explain the first three with "*" as being processed.

You may need to go into the /var/spool/mqueue/ and look closer at the messages and at mail.log.

[Jeeshan]

>>1)What is mail queue? and 2)Why it is happening?

check this link

[Broken link removed on <4/18/2017> by Mod]

>>3)How to send (transfer) all mail queues to respective mail servers?

If you want to flush out the mail queues, you have to check the root cause of queueing. check in /var/adm/syslog/mail.log

>>4)How to resolve the issue?

either you can remove the files of /var/spool/mqueue or you can forcely send the mails.

[senthil_kumar_1]

Hi All,

Please find the output of /var/adm/syslog/mail.log.

tail mail.log
Sep 5 23:04:33 lgprime sendmail[20503]: XAA20501: to=root, ctladdr=root (0/3), delay=00:00:18, xdelay=00:00:18, mailer=local, stat=Deferred
Sep 6 11:01:01 lgprime sendmail[18022]: LAA18022: from=senthil.kumar@emdiesels.com, size=806, class=0, pri=60806, nrcpts=2, msgid=<201009061601.LAA18022@lgprime.lag.gmlg.gm.com>, relay=root@localhost
Sep 6 11:01:01 lgprime sendmail[18022]: LAA18022: to=mh.khan@emdiesels.com, delay=00:00:00, mailer=relay, stat=queued
Sep 6 11:01:01 lgprime sendmail[18022]: LAA18022: to=senthil.kumar@emdiesels.com, delay=00:00:00, mailer=relay, stat=queued
Sep 6 12:00:01 lgprime sendmail[9107]: MAA09107: from=root, size=242, class=0, pri=30242, nrcpts=1, msgid=<201009061700.MAA09107@lgprime.lag.gmlg.gm.com>, relay=root@localhost
Sep 6 12:00:20 lgprime sendmail[9109]: MAA09107: to=root, ctladdr=root (0/3), delay=00:00:19, xdelay=00:00:19, mailer=local, stat=Deferred
Sep 6 20:00:02 lgprime sendmail[854]: UAA00854: from=root, size=843, class=0, pri=30843, nrcpts=1, msgid=<201009070100.UAA00854@lgprime.lag.gmlg.gm.com>, relay=root@localhost
Sep 6 20:00:21 lgprime sendmail[857]: UAA00854: to=root, ctladdr=root (0/3), delay=00:00:19, xdelay=00:00:18, mailer=local, stat=Deferred
Sep 6 21:43:10 lgprime sendmail[8457]: Warning: .cf file is out of date: sendmail 8.9.3 (PHNE_28760) supports version 8, .cf file is version 6
Sep 6 21:43:28 lgprime sendmail[8582]: Warning: .cf file is out of date: sendmail 8.9.3 (PHNE_28760) supports version 8, .cf file is version 6


My Question:

How to find the root cause?

[senthil_kumar_1]

Hi All,

1)I have run following command to send all the mail frocible from mail queue.

#sendmail -v -q

But still mail queue is not cleared.


I have tried to find the root cause and found that system load avreage is 17.

Is this causing the mailqueue issue?

[chris huys_4]

Hi,

> I have tried to find the root cause and
> found that system load avreage is 17.

> Is this causing the mailqueue issue?

[Broken link removed on <4/18/2017> by Mod]

sendmail.cf

RefuseLA=33

restart sendmail

Greetz,
Chris